Comment by forrestthewoods

"Why can't you just" is a huge pet peeve of mine.

"Why can't you just" is particular frustrating when someone interrupts a deep conversation. What they're really saying is "can you please stop your conversation and focus your full attaching on catching me up to all the issues you discussed 2 hours ago?"

Here's an alternative:

"Can you tell me about your problem?" Then shut up and listen.

And here's a slightly longer form:

"You've thought about this way more than me. I'd love to brainstorm with you. But I'll need to catch up. <Listen. Listen more.> So why doesn't sshd work? Ok, and why can't you foo? Oh damn. What happens if you bar? Dang. I don't have an answer yet, but I am starting to understand your problem".

Odds are decent that someone will solve their own hard problem by using you as a rubber duck. Odds are very, very low that you'll solve someone else's hard problem by offering up the very first thing that comes to mind.